A year? Nah, you can buy a set with them right now.
Has the new knowles tweeters and woofers.
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I wonder if we’ll see a reversal from “EST are the best treble if you can afford them” back to hybrid sets. Already there are cases where I prefer BA treble to EST treble.
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For hybrids, I can see BAs taking over compared to Sonion ESTs (electrets).
But for full range, I think it might be planars or MEMS that will be the future.
DDs, as much as I love them right now compared to all other drivers, IS an ancient tech…
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Yet to hear a planar I prefer to a DD though. It’s not a case of better but different, at least out of what I’ve experienced. (And not a “different” that I like personally, fully understand if it’s someone’s preference though.)
I wonder how long MEMS will be constantly a “near future” thing. Like implementing graphene more broadly in all kinds of things like batteries etc has been “around the corner” for years. I’ve heard about it for a while, lots of people are excited about it, but…
EDIT: Sorry I think I was typing while the rest got moved.
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I’m gonna challenge your definition of “I can buy this right now” by adding the statement “if I don’t pay my mortgage this month” 
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Thats why I did say in the “future”.
I wasn’t contradicting you… I was just riffing.
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yeah a really good DD right now is hard to beat for most use cases but just wait until a really good planar comes out 
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I’m not saying it’s a great planar. I’m not even saying it’s “better” than any of the others (I’ve only heard S12), but the P1 Max sure got slept on.
This is a mid-centric beast!
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IFi Uno DAC/Amp
211mW into (the average headphone’s) 32 Ohms or 3.5V into 600 Ohm.
The Power Match button optionally adds 6dB of gain to thirstier cans and the neighbouring analogue domain-executed EQ settings reportedly add clarity to dialogue when in ‘Movie’ mode and enhance the presence of low-level details in ‘Game’ mode; ‘Music’ mode returns us to a more neutral EQ profile.
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Looks like a cute little device, but I’m not sure why you’d buy this instead of paying $20 more for the Zen Air DAC. I feel like iFi has made their product line much too cluttered and redundant.
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Looks good, but this is weird description to say that it has XX power output and THEN power match button of +6dB. I guess that first value of 211mW is after power match being on
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I think it may be acknowledging that for some budgets, every penny counts. Someone with a $50 budget may not be able to stretch it to $70. I’m presuming the same applies here.
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You’re right, I should have reversed it. Why pay $20 more for the Zen Air DAC which doesn’t seem like a much different device. Does it sound better? It doesn’t look like I have any reason to think so. In other words it seems like they’ve just made another product in their line unnecessary. It’s not clear to me from a marketing perspective not only why I should pay more for the Air, but why I should pay more than that for the Zen DAC v2 (is balanced that important?) or even more than that for the Zen DAC Signature which has fewer features. I don’t feel like they’ve done a good job communicating the target audience and value proposition for each of these devices, and it reminds me of Apple before jobs came back and slashed the product line because it’d just gotten confusing to people. If I was in the market for one of these products I honestly don’t know which one I should buy and why. Saying the more expensive one just “sounds better” isn’t meaningful enough on its own, whether or not it’s true.
Products should ideally have clear price brackets and differentiating feature sets so customers know what to buy.
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Uno:
- 211mW @ 32Ohm
- 3.5V @ 600Ohm
- RCA (rear) 3.5mm (front) output
- ESS Saber DAC
- USB-C input only, no external power
- 3 EQ presets, no custom EQ
No information on THD, SNR, DNR, Output impedance
Not on IFI website yet
Air:
- “>230mW @ 32Ohm”
- “> 36mW @ 300Ohm” (without quotation marks, it would have shown as a quote)
- RCA (rear) 1/4" (front) output
- “Bit Perfect” Burr Brown DAC
- No EQ presets
- USB type B input with optional external power
- THD+N <.04% (@ 0dBFS Line out, 100mW @ 16Ohm)
V2
- (@ 1% THD) 330mW@32Ohm/6.6V@600Ohm (balanced headphone out, using optional 5V external power)
- (@ 1% THD) 230mW@32Ohm/3.3V@600Ohm (SE headphone out, using optional 5V external power)
- RCA/Pentacon (rear, optional line or pre-out) 1/4"/Pentacon (front)
- “Bit Perfect” Burr Brown DAC
- No EQ Presets
- USB Type B input with optional external power
- THD+N <.0015% (@ 0dBFS BAL/SE rear) <.005% (@ 125mW @ 32R front)
Then you get into the Zen Air Can/Zen CAN/Zen CAN Signature(6XX/HFM/MZ99) for dedicated amps and ZEN One Signature and ZEN DAC Signature for dedicated DACs.
Balanced provides more power, and usually lower noise. Not all headphones will need the extra power, some headphones are only SE (Some are only 1/4" without stupid adapters/modification). Amps are getting better about being lower noise, which mitigates that benefit of balanced.
DAC/AMPs are good for those who don’t have as much real estate to play with, and usually are cheaper then their combined dedicated counterparts, though offer less flexibility for mixing and matching exactly what you want.
I could see the Uno being good for people on a really tight budget, constantly on the road, and only run things like IEMs, or really efficient headphones.
The Air would be good for people with a bit more money, or don’t care about balanced.
The DACV2 would be better for those who want the better build, want more useful features, and want balanced.
I’d go dedicated (with fewer individual features) for greater flexibility, potentially better sound/more power, and if I didn’t mind the higher price tag.
-all specs taken from product pages where available, or taken from article
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Yeah, again I’d say the devices are too similar and marketed too simialrly. Like the Zen DAC is just the Zen Air DAC with balanced added to it. I don’t feel like that’s terribly compelling to most people, and that the target market of someone who cares about balanced would probably buy the Zen CAN anyway because they’d want more power. The big difference between the Zen Air DAC and the Uno is the chip, but I’m not sure they do enough to indicate why someone would want one chip over the other.
Like if I was in charge of this product line, I’d drop the Zen DAC (which might be hard given it’s established position at this point, but I feel like as a value prop it doesn’t make sense anymore) and the Zen Air DAC. I would then drop the Zen CAN.
So now you’ve got the “budget” model, the Uno. Then you’ve got the Zen DAC Signature for people who want something that sounds higher quality and don’t need a DAC/Amp but just a DAC. Then you’ve got the Zen Air CAN for people who want to add it to the Uno for more power SE. And someone who wants a more powerful amp can get the Zen Can Signature because they want something higher end. Now you’ve got a clear line: budget DAC/Amp, budget Amp, and higher-end DAC and Amp. And then on top of that you’ve got the iCANN and other really high-end stuff, and the mobile stuff like the Hip DAC and the Gryphon. (Alternately, if the Zen Air DAC chip really does sound better than the Uno chip, then don’t bother with the Uno. Maybe just lower the Zen Air DAC to $80 if you want to chase that market. Otherwise it’s confusing.)
But I’m not in audio marketing or whatever, so what do I know?
Part of the problem is that it’s not clear to me what the difference in sound is between the ESS chip and the Burr Brown chip, and I don’t think they’ve done anything to help me out.
Compare this to JDS Labs and their dead simple lineup of “Atom Amp”, “Atom DAC”, “El Amp”, “El DAC” and “Element DAC/AMP”. Three different designs with different price points and use cases. (With the Element costing less than the El stack just because it’s for people who are willing to trade off being able to swap components for having an all-in-one device.)
Or let’s compare this to a company with a more complicated product line, Schiit Audio.
So there’s the Modi, that’s the basic DAC, and it’s just a DAC. Then at $220/$250 you have the Modius and the Modi Multibit. Now this might seem like a bad decision (and I know the Mimby is out of stock now but apparently they’re going to bring it back). But Modius is the measurements-focused device (which adds balanced) while the Mimby is the euphonic, multibit thing. It’s clear to me these two devices are aimed at different audiences who want different things. And then the next step up after that is the Bifrost which is more than three times more expensive and has a much larger feature set, and its multibit while measuring better than the Mimby. A different price bracket. A different target. (Once you get to the Yggy things get more confused because they have three different versions of it with three different topologies, which I think is kind of insane but okay.)
The amps start with the Magni 3+ and the Magni Heresy, which I actually think are too similar, but the Heresy is the measurements focused device and the 3+ is more euphonic, but I don’t think it’s more euphonic enough to really warrant its own existence. Then you go to the Vali, which is a tube amp and completely different, and then the Magnius, which is balanced and offers SIGNIFICANTLY more power than the Magni, so if you have hard-to-drive headphones you have a clear path to step up to. And from there you get different kinds of crazy tube amps and things with SS/tube dual topologies, at very different price points and with different use cases.
In other words, the purpose of each of these devices is pretty clear and it’s clear how they stand out from other devices in line-up. iFi doesn’t really have that right now, and it’s a problem for them in terms of customers knowing what to buy.
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Oh I forgot about the Asgard and the Jotenheim. Yeah Asgard more euphonic than Magnius, Jotenheim top of the line SS amp.
Not exactly, but sure.
Overlooking the built in EQs, much smaller size, lower power, missing specs, no external power option (good for people with issues with dirty power)…
I’m getting the feeling you’re way over thinking, while hyper simplifying. There are 4 very similar articles about the Uno. That’s it. No product page. All we know about it is pictures, and what’s in these four articles, and a forum thread:
https://headphones.com/community/reviews-learning-and-news/ifi-audio-uno
And the “articles” seem more like they’re written by a marketing team that got a half baked list of specs.
To be frank, yes. I think you’re making a mountain out of a mole hill.